Nintendo has announced that it will be discontinuing its online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in “early April 2024,” or, possibly, even earlier depending on unforeseen circumstances. The Japanese gaming giant shared the news in an updated support article today, explaining that after that date, online play and other functionality that uses online communication in 3DS and Wii U titles will cease to work, including online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution. The Nintendo 3Ds and Wii U were originally released in February 2011 and November 2012, respectively.
We will announce a specific end date and time at a later date.
Please note that if an event occurs that would make it difficult to continue online services for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software, we may have to discontinue services earlier than planned.
Players will still be able to use features and game modes that do not require online communication.
It will still be possible to use online services for the following software but that may also end at some point in the future: Pokémon Bank, Poké Transporter.
With some exceptions, online services will end for all Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Please contact publishers for information about the online services for their software.
For the foreseeable future, it will still be possible to download update data and redownload purchased software and downloadable content from Nintendo eShop.
StreetPass uses local communication between Nintendo 3DS family systems, meaning that it will still be available even after online services end. However, because SpotPass uses online communication, SpotPass features will no longer be available.
For example, you will be able to use StreetPass in StreetPass Mii Plaza, which is pre-installed on Nintendo 3DS family systems, but you will no longer be able to use features that use online communication (such as receiving new panels in Puzzle Swap).
Discussion (2 replies)
Join Discussion →Sounds reasonable. Surprised a wii u lived that long. Ours died.
The closure of online services and the eShop store are of no concern with 3DS and Wii U, as the 3DS is ridiculously easy to soft-mod, and I heard the Wii U is too. I was thinking about checking out the modding process for the Wii U, maybe trying it out, but I have no real reason to soft-mod it, except for being able to properly back up save data (which is something I do care very much about). Still, not like my Wii U gets used for much. Every single noteworthy game that came out on it was ported to Switch. Of course I'm not gonna buy a 2nd copy of the ones I own on Wii U for Switch. Well I would for some, if Nintendo ever let their games get to decent sale prices. I paid $8 for Metro Exodus+DLC this year, but with Nintendo games we're lucky if we see below $40, for games that are a decade old. Sometimes places like Best Buy will even bring Nintendo games down to $30, which make the eyes bug outta my head like an old WB cartoon, cuz it's insaaaaane to see such low prices for Nintendo games. And now that Switch emulation has really taken off on PC over the last few years...